The challenge of education in India
There are various factors determining economic development of India such as Natural resources, technology, Capital formation, best investment patters in alignment with the various business sectors and most important is India's Population and man power resources.
However,the education is critical indicator for human development which makes an individual as skilled and professional resource to make him contribute towards country's GDP .
Being education as such a major role player in our country's social and economic growth,we need to understand where do we stand today in terms of better quality education of the people in our country.
According to the 'World Development Report 2018: 'Learning to Realise Education's Promise', released in 2017 India ranks second after Malawi in a list of 12 countries wherein a grade two student could not read a single word of a short text. India also tops the list of seven countries in which a grade two student could not perform two-digit subtraction.
With a literacy rate of 77 percent, India lags behind other BRICS nations, which have literacy rates above 90 percent. All these countries have better student-teacher ratios.
Every year we see various advertisements of new schools, colleges and even professional courses provider universities are opened which claim to provide world class facilities, education to the students.
In spite of all those facts the quality education is still a long awaited dream for millions of Indian students which compel to think upon the challenges to education system in India.
Traditional Educational System
We are still way behind in providing practical knowledge to our students right from the elementary education. Our more focus is on theory based knowledge covering the syllabus from the textbook. Students tend to focus more on high score due to parental,societal pressure but lack the practical experience. Such students crowd in the market don't get converted in the skilled and professional workforce.
Ineffective Syllabus Mapping
Our education system sticks to the same syllabus year on year. We must admit that there are various latest happening in the field of technology, science, trade and commerce. Globalization has opened the door for varied opportunities in each and every field of which most of our students enrolled for higher education system are not exposed to.
Exclusion of the required elements
Our education system do not focus much on the personality development programmers, entrepreneurial skills. Most of the students opt for private employment rather than starting their own business. Also students when entered in the market struggle to get job as per their capability simply because they don't meet the criteria and skills required for the job.
Lack of Funds
There are various schools and colleges in India those lacks with proper computer labs, laboratory, libraries and other basic facilities. Most of the villages in India do not have proper schools, which makes the students to travel few kilometers to attain their basic education.
Rigid role of Family and Income
In most of the families in rural area, expects that more and more people of the family should earn, children are send out to earn the daily bread and butter of the family instead of going to school and attain their basic education. Also, girls are denied further education on the basis of discrimination done in between girls and boys.
In 2015, 3.7 million eligible girls were out of school and in rural areas girls receive an average of fewer than four years of education. In a country like India where 21.9% of the population is below its official poverty limit, it does not come as a surprise that poverty is the major obstacle that limits education for girls. State of the Government Schools/Colleges
Within government schools- overcrowded classrooms, absent teacher, unsanitary conditions are common complaints and can cause parents to decide that it is not worth their child going to school.
Inequality and expensive cost of education
We might be knowing that now there are various big name schools in the market which charges even lakhs of Rupees for Junior KG admission and there on incremental fees on yearly basis (inclusive of all school facilities like bus services,picnics,annual functions etc),of course only well earning rich people can afford such education system and poor people don't even do daring of thinking the same school/institute for their kids irrespective of that kid is brilliant. Also various boards such as CBSE, state board and ICSE syllabus differs which creates confusion amongst parents and students. They get burden of paying high fees and donation amounts in lakhs for professional courses such as medical ,management studies etc.
In spite of above mentioned challenges the core concern of the quality education remains the big question for the students. On the day of result we might have seen our self/relatives asking for percentage of the marks and not what you exactly learnt in your educational term. Most of the time we don't even know what is there in syllabus and we certify the student's intelligence on the basis of their final result percentage.
Indian Government has introduced various schemes for educational system such as Sarva shiksha Abhiyan.Mid Day Meal,Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan,Girls Hostel Schemes etc.
However, only introducing schemes will not help us to outstand in the quality education but its proper and effective implementation will definitely help to improve us in long run.
Rather than creating mere rat race of the students for high score and grabbing seat for professional courses, encouraging passion for education among students is absolute necessary. We need educational system which works on conceptual clarity than running behind completion of syllabus, we need better trained teachers to bring out the uniqueness of each student , our societal mentality should turn towards the accepting the values of education rather than mere completing their duty of providing education to their kids.
We should tend to focus more and more on quality and the wide coverage of the students to make India literate nation in the world in coming of few years. The roots of education are bitter,but the fruit is sweet-Aristotle
It's high time for India to plant the roots of education in terms of quality and quantity as well in its growing population, in order to taste the fruit of the best workforce , growing strong economy , responsible and well educated citizens to place itself high on various global indicators in the world.
- Anita Yesale
